BryanZ

I buy dough from my local gourmet pizzeria and find that it's better than what I can do at home, and it's cheap, and it's easier. I make my own really, really simple sauce w/ crushed plum tomatoes, some basil, organo, olive oil, and S&P. I like the light nature of that sacue as opposed to the HEAVY store bought kinds. In general, I keep my crusts super thin and bake on an inverted cookie sheet (bootleg I know), but I get great results. Some of my fav toppings: Pear, Proscuitto di San Danielle, Reggiano, and fresh Mozzarella, and goat cheese Tons of spinach (it cooks down a ton), blue cheese, and Reggiano It's best to let the crust shine through and have the topping simply serve as accompaniments. Mmmm, good pizza, I miss it so much.

I think asking for good dinner options at $8-12 is asking for an awful lot. I can spend 10 dollars at a pizzeria on a couple "gourmet" slices and a drink. I'm not saying that places like this don't exist but the growth of restaurants in this area likely won't start at that price point. It will likely come from a slightly higher and more upscale angle. I've done some thinking on the Japanese restaurant angle, as it is the ethnic food I know best, and have mixed feelings. While I feel a Japanese "bistro" offering traditional Japanese offerings would be perfect for the area, I'm not sure it would have the necessary glam to attract large numbers of people in an area where the population is relatively spread out. I also think a cutting-edge Japanese fusion restaurant would be a welcome addition to the upscale dining scene, but I do not think the Triangle would be able to support a restaurant w/ $70+ omakase offerings that requires rapid turnaround in order to keep all the ingredients at the peak of freshness. The bastardized Japanese steakhouse concept and mediocre sushi bar seem to be what works for this area, and, unfortunately, I cannot think of a more cost-effective Japanese-style restaurant to take their place. As far as Detlechef's comments, it seems that the best restaurants in the area are being run by professional and passionate individuals. It seems like there aren't enough of these individuals around, however. The demand is clearly there, it just will take the opening of more and more solid restaurants to weed out some of the crap out there.

It's on menupages.com.

Baleine and Morton's Kosher are fine for everyday use. But it's also nice to have a nice fleur de sel to finish dishes. I prefer one w/ a little bit of moistre, as the texture and aroma is more pleasing than simple, dry crystals of salt.

As I prematurely posted in the Mesa Grill thread, I feel as though the new menu is kind of boring. Does anyone else share these sentiments? If Bobby Flay really nails these dishes there are a lot of strong contenders but, compared to his other restaurants, this seems far more tame.

Perhaps it's small size makes it less intimidating for those of us who are less knife inclined. Just a thought.

Well welcome to the discussion Nate. I'm curious why you think moderately priced French Bistro fare and high-end Japanese would fail. I think the Triangle lacks one central location where we could have a "restaurant row", but I also feel like there are enough people in the area willing to drive 20 minutes for good food (there are certainly enough people ready to wait at least 20 minutes at Outback or Macaroni Grill). I think the interesting dynamic here is the relationship between "special occasion" dining and having a few good restaurants that one can consistently rely on for good and sometimes creative food. If one wants to spend $25+ for an entree there are definitely good places to do that (as the majority of us here have established), but I still think that something not quite as pricey would be immensely successful. That is why I wonder why you, Nate, think a French Bistro or a traditional, quality Japanese restaurant would fail (as they price themselves perfectly in the $15-$25 entree range). Although I have never been, restaurants like Starlu seem to be on the right path for Triangle dining.

Could I have more information on this place. Perhaps a link to the hotel's website. I'm from Northern New Jersey but would consider making the drive to Philly if you guys think its worth it (I'm a kid with nothing better to do). This seems to be a very interesting concept in terms of Sunday brunches. I've done some excellent one's in my travels but have yet to come across one that places such an emphasis on small tastes as opposed to blitzing you with large offerings of beef tenderloin, rack of lamb, and crab claws. Any information would be really helpful.

You could say that I place no price on food (although my father regularly disagrees with this mantra). Seriously though, I've grown up loving food so my parents more or less accept that once or maybe twice a week I'll go out and try a new restaurant. I guess it's kind of selfish, but I consider it part of my education. I also want to get more involved in the culinary scene in this area, and I figure it can't hurt to have a strong feel for the local restaurants, their menus, and general dining trends in the Triangle. I also research a lot of restaurants without going to them. I, regretably, use Citysearch a lot and local newspapers etc., then I read menus and reviews, that kind of thing. This narrows down where I do end up spending my money and gives me a better sense of what's popular.

Do you know how Rio comapares to Chamas in Brightleaf Square Mall in Durham. I enjoyed Chamas when I went.

I don't think it's possible either. Freezing a living thing slowly, like in your freezer at home, would cause ice crystals to form in its body and tear up its cells, killing it. It might be possible to freeze it really fast (and really cold) using liquid nitrogen to minimize the ice crystals, putting it in a "cryonic freeze." Kind of like Ted Williams. I'm sure it's been done before on small animals, but I dunno about lobsters. ← I agree with this. After having read the linked article above, a conventional freezer would be unable to freeze the lobster as quickly as necessary. I'd like to hear back from the person who orignally posted the come-back-to-life claim and read about his/her experiences.

Jean-Georges does an excellent mushroom dusted boneless rack of lamb with a brilliant green leek puree. I've made this several times and the leek has the substance to stand up to the lamb but isn't as "heavy" as a bean puree might be. I think it fits well with the pseduo-spingy theme.

This is looks really cool. Not the most aesthetically pleasing but very interesting technology.

Lobsters coming back to life after you freeze them? Am I reading this correctly? That seems impossible. If it's true, however, that is fascinating.

Reading this made my day.

Leek puree would go well, too, I think.

I'm not familiar with it. I'll look into right now, in fact. On a separate note, can anyone recommend and middle-line, non-chain steakhouse. I'm not talking Dry-Aged Prime cuts here, just some quality meat that's not Outback or Lonestar or whatever. PM with recommendations if you can. Thanks.

Duke has one hot dog cart that's permanent fixture on campus. The quality is very good but it's not cheap. Regardless, it's popular with students. We also have Indian Food catered into our main dining hall once a week, but I'm not sure if that counts.

I think what Zeb A sums up the situation pretty well. The Triangle's best restaurants are good restaurants and probably hold their own against all but the big boys in the biggest cities. Still, I think that the dining segment that is characterized by very good food with flashes of brilliance at a price level where most people can afford to be semi-regulars is what is most lacking. In my personal experience, I have yet to find a restaurant that I can fall in love with while still being able to come back to every other week or so and still be excited by the food. I'm still looking though and have learned a lot from the people on this thread.

Yeah, I figured as much. But nonetheless, I was still surprised by the 3 star rating. Looks like I'm going to have to go this summer. I loved Bruni's line calling BLT fish the lovechild of Le Bernardin and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

3 stars? From what I've read here, it doesn't seem to be of that caliber.

I'm glad that you proved most of us wrong.

What did your instructors think?

Awesome, I'm glad everything was a success. I have to admit, I'm glad that you saved the duck, for that would've been a tragic, tragic loss. I'll be interested to see the cost breakdown to see if doing something like this would be worth my time.

I appreciate the anecdotes. I'm trying to embrace the differences and the unique aspects of the area, so I guess that's why this thread is a good place to discuss such things. The "Southern" food in the area is very good, and, as far as yanks go, I'm a huge fan of barbeque, pig pickin', sweet tea, and hush puppies, etc.. I'm still coming to terms with the supposedly "slow" nature of the South and have learned a lot from this thread already. I hope the discussion continues.